Lost Anjel
by Torture Tricks and Tailcoats
Summary: Meet Anjel, your average 21st century high schooler. Now drop her into Victorian England, and you end up with an addition to the Institute family via extremely foul-mouthed teenager, increased demon activity, and a warlock that is clearly up to something.
1. Meet History

**Author's Note: Bonjour, bonjour! Welcome to my first ever posted fanfiction, though certainly not my first written. Since I don't have anything of importance to say: comment, offer ideas, review, and as always, let me know if anything is incorrect and needs to be fixed.**

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own the Infernal Devices series. *Dramatic tear.* Maybe that's for the best, though, since Jem would end up married to Tessa within, say, five minutes of me owning it. I do, however, own my (bad mouthed) OC—Anjel—and the plot. **

**Onwards with the story!**

**Chapter 1: Meet History**

Anjel hoisted her bag over her shoulder with a grunt and slammed her locker closed with her hip—seeing as her hands, too, were filled to brimming with books. The unspoken rule of no Friday homework was apparently abolished as soon as Anjel hit high school. She was in 11th grade, and knew better by now than to hope for that rare Friday with no homework.

"You coming over?" Roe, Anjel's closest (and practically only) friend, asked. Roe threw one book from her locker into her bag before shutting it. Roe didn't have nearly the good worth ethic that Anjel had.

"Not now. I'm not feeling so great." Anjel felt perfectly fine, physically, anyway.

"Well let me know if you change your mind." Roe waggled her black and red painted finger nails at Anjel. "Feel better. Ciao!"

Anjel gave a fake smile (the last one she would have to give today she hoped, because her face was starting to hurt from all of the false smiles) and waved goodbye.

~.~.~

Anjel was your perfectly average 17 year old girl, if you called being emo yet going against the entire stereotype normal. She looked the part, no one could deny her that. She had short, layered black hair, about neck length, that looked like the feathers from an angel's wings. She wore excessive amounts of make-up-mascara applied so thickly that it almost dripped off of her eyelashes, black eyeliner above and below her eyes, black lipstick, heck, she even managed to find some black blush. She had plenty of piercings-the tops and bottoms of both her ears, nose, lip, tongue, and two snakebites under her chin. She wore a lot of black, which contrasted well with her paper-pale skin and electric green eyes.

The stereotype was only skin deep, though. On the inside, Anjel was just an injured, afraid girl that had hardened her outer shell to protect that frightened girl from getting hurt again. She buried herself in books and her studies as another front between her and the outside world. Her favorite subject was history; she loved how you could wash away all of the fancy clothes and gadgets of the ages and see how humanity itself was exactly the same in every time period. She especially loved the myths and fairytales that surrounded every era, every country, and were passed down generation to generation. Anjel wanted to be in one of those fairy tales, fighting evil back to back with a handsome gentleman in the face of danger. Anjel was absolutely _no _one of the people who sat by and watched in fights; she was not a damsel in distress.

"You're late!" growled Anjel's father as she tried—and failed—to enter the house unnoticed.

Anjel smelled the unmistakably disgusting smell of alcohol lingering freshly off of her father. "Sorry." she muttered, knowing better than to agitate him in this state. He couldn't have drank _too_ much if he was talking rather coherently and with only a slight slur.

"You're damn right yer sorry! Yer a downright sorry excuse for a person you illegitimate-" her father's southern accent was always intensified after he had been drinking.

Anjel moved to go around her father and ignore him all together, but he grabbed her roughly by the wrist and flung her against the wall. "Where d'you think yer goin'?"

Anjel didn't so much as flinch as her head made contact with the wall. "I have school work." her voice was cold and dead sounding.

"Ain't notin' important 'bout school! You should be workin' and givin' back to me!"

"Give back to _you_? You haven't done shit except waste my mother's hard earned money on your damn drugs and alcohol and cigarettes! I don't owe you _anything._" Anjel had a bad habit of firing off her mouth without thinking, and it most unanimously got her beat by her father every time.

"What'd ya say?" her father grabbed her by her shirt and tugged her close to him, close enough to smell the rancid scent of cigarettes on his breath.

"You heard me." Anjel tried to take shallow breaths to avoid inhaling the terrible smell.

Her father smacked her across the face. "You don't deserve to live."

Anjel would love to smack her father right back, but she was small and thin and wouldn't be able to defend herself well against him. "Then kill me."

Anjel's eyes widened as her father _actually_ pulled out a knife. "With pleasure." and having said that, Anjel's father stabbed her in the stomach.

Anjel clutched at the knife lodged in her stomach, trying to pull it out, but it was wedged deeply and would not come out without bringing a sea of blood with it. She ran up the stairs to her room while clutching her stomach to stop the bleeding as best she could.

Anjel grabbed a large duffle bag and haphazardly threw some of her things—clothes, make-up, items of personal significance, favorite books, and her cell phone—into it, then slung it over her shoulder with a wince.

Anjel knew jumping out if the window was both extreme and dangerous considering her wound, but there were no other ways out of the house besides the windows and the front door, and she did not want to risk going back downstairs with her father. Roe's house was only 10 minutes away, so even if he did make her injury worse, she should be fine (Roe's father was a doctor).

Anjel opened the window and felt the cool November night air ruffle her hair. She ducked under and sat on the window sill, then slid off of it without looking down.

Anjel landed on her feet, much to her surprise. She took off running down the pavement, so quickly she didn't notice anyone was around until she bumped into a tall man in a dark hooded coat.

"Excuse m-" the man knocked his head against hers with bone crushing force. She crumpled onto the ground, barely conscious.

Anjel felt the man's fingers roaming about in her wound, and she almost retched at the feeling. "Raziel's blood..." she heard him whisper and watched him withdraw his bloody fingers from her. This time she /did/ retch; her body was racked with the effort of dispelling more blood. She willingly welcomed the darkness that followed, be it the darkness of death or otherwise.

~.~.~

"I think Gabriel would look absolutely charming in a dress, don't yo-" Anjel heard a voice, male, saying animatedly.

"Will, look." another voice cut off the first, sounding more serious. "It's a boy."

Anjel heard a sound that was a mix between a laugh and a snort. "That's a girl Jem." the first male that spoke-Will-said. Anjel wished they would shut up and let her enjoy her death in peace.

"No, look, he's wearing trousers." Wait, was Anjel really dead? She tried to wiggle her toes and felt them moving in her shoes. She must not be dead then, she guessed.

"Even so, 'he' has some rather ah...distinguishably feminine features."

Anjel was tired of these two strange people discussing her gender. "I'm a fucking girl!" Anjel growled, using her scary voice, and sat up. She saw two boys, looking somewhere in their teens, standing side by side.

"A girl with a knife in her stomach." Will had curly black hair that fell about his face in an unruly fashion. His eyes were a mystifying color of blue, one she had never seen before.

Anjel looked down and saw that the knife was still there. The blood on her shirt had, for the most part, dried. The time between her running to Roe's house and arriving here was a blur.

"Will." Jem, the boy with the more serious sounding voice, was all light, soft colors in comparison to Will. His skin was pale, his hair and eyes a silver that was seemed to shimmer in the moonlight overhead.

"Oh." Will said after a moment, as if a huge, obvious discovery just dawned on him. "She can see us."

_That _was the discovery? "Damn well I can. I've got eyes don't I?" Anjel adjusted her duffle bag on her shoulder. "I don't have time for this, I have to go."

Anjel started down the narrow road, surprised that neither of them had tried to stop her. Hardly a minute into walking did Anjel realize that this street, these buildings, everything, seemed out of place. The buildings looked like they had come straight out of her Victorian England architecture books. And wait-did those boys back there have British accents?

Anjel stormed back to the boys in a rage, and grabbed Will by his shirt collar. "Where the hell am I?"

He snickered and whispered to Jem, "Told you she'd be back." to which he merely replied with an indifferent shake of his head.

Jem spoke up this time. "You are in London, England, and the year is 1878."

Anjel-cliché as it sounded-did not believe her ears. "Let's just say for a minute that I do believe you. What's with this whole 'she can see us?' thing?"

Jem sighed, and it was then that Anjel noticed how thin he was. "It is not a brief explanation, perhaps it would be best for you to come with us for the time being. We would be able to treat your wounds also, and judging by your...circumstances, I assume you have nowhere else to stay."

All of what Jem said made sense. But that didn't make Anjel anymore willing to trust people, let alone strangers from another time period entirely. "No thanks, I'll get home by mysel-"

"In all seriousness, simply your being here may very well be putting your life in danger. I offer my utmost word when I say that we will cause no harm to you." Anjel searched Jem's eyes; they were sincere and kind.

Anjel was tired and she was hungry, and for the sole reason of not feeling like fighting, she told herself, she agreed.

"My name is James Carstairs," Jem said and offered Anjel an arm, the one that wasn't holding his cane, "but please, call me Jem-everyone does."

Will fell in step on Anjel's left side, and he, too, offered her his arm. "William Herondale, though I'm sure you've heard of my name and all its majesty."

Anjel snorted. "Never." she heard Jem hide a chuckle in a cough beside her. "Anjel Valloise."

Anjel was only faintly aware that someone was talking to her; her head felt light like someone had filled it with helium, and she was starting to get dizzy and off balance.

"Miss Valloise!" Anjel's head fell against something soft but firm, and she closed her eyes again, hoping that when she woke she would be back home again, away from this strangely wonderful dream.

~.~.~

Anjel wrenched her eyes open with effort, afraid of what she would see this time when she awoke.

A lot of beds was what she saw, rows and rows of them in one large room. How odd, she thought, but there is still hope that I could be back home! She looked down and saw that she was in a pink nightdress, and, upon not seeing the knife protruding from her stomach, she searched for it. It was on a bedside table next to her bed, the blood sticking out in bright relief against the cold silver. She, to her relief, still had on her jeans underneath the dress, and she slipped the knife into the pocket of them, just in case.

Anjel slunk out of the room, and was met with hallways and doors in every direction. The floor was rug but had hardwood underneath which squeaked under her shoeless feet. Anjel had no idea where she was going, and could now not tell how to get back to the room with the beds, and so she decided to wander about until she found anyone in this huge, weird place.

Finally she did happen upon someone, a girl sitting in one of the many bedrooms she had come across.

"Sorry, I didn't know anyone was here." she apologized as the girl looked up, startled.

"Who are you?" As far as first impressions went, Anjel thought this girl sounded annoying.

"Anjel Valloise." If that was indeed the case, she would keep this conversation as short as possible.

"Oh, you're that girl Jem and Will found on the streets. I'm Jessamine." she smiled, though it looked sour and clearly forced.

"Where are they?" Anjel made herself comfortable in one of the chairs by Jessamine's bed.

"There was an outbreak of demons or something they had to take care of." Jessamine sounded disinterested in both the subject and the boys' whereabouts.

"Demons?" This dream just got a lot weirder, Anjel thought with a sigh.

"Yes, demons. You're weird."

"Not shit Sherlock, if you went to the 21st century people's say you're weird too." Anjel definitely did _not _like this girl.

"You aren't very lady like. Or pretty. What's wrong with your face?"

Anjel leaped from her chair and was wrestling Jessamine to the ground. "The same thing that's about to be wrong with yours!" Anjel punched the girl in the face, and heard bone cracking as her fist connected with Jessamine's nose. She punched her over and over, her hand coming back with more and more blood each time.

"Bloody hell!" Anjel heard a voice say, and was finally dragged off of Jessamine by strong arms after much flailing and kicking.

The person who had gotten her off of Jessamine was Will, and he practically had to carry her into the hall due to her struggles. Jem was standing with two adults in the hall waiting.

"I wouldn't advise going in there." Will let her go once they were in the hall, safely away from Jessamine. "You may want to call the Silent Brothers for Jessamine."

The woman scurried into Jessamine's room and shut the door behind her. The man stood awkwardly, looking confused.

"By the Angel, Miss Valloise, what did you _do_?" Jem said finally, after recovering from his moment of shock. "We returned to screaming and shouting, and Will drags you out of Jessamine's room covered in blood!" Will was standing next to Anjel snickering at the appalled look on Jem's face.

Anjel hesitated for a moment before answering, "She called me unladylike." Will burst into a loud cachinnate and fell to the floor, clutching his stomach in laughter.

"I think that just proves it!" Will said after he had recovered himself.

Jem shook his head and his hair shook a bit out of place in the action. Anjel could see, though, that he too was smiling like Will. "It is late, and I am quite sure we have all had enough _entertainment,"_ he looked at Will and Anjel as he said this, "for one night. Miss Valloise, seeing as you are in much better health, I will show you to your room. Your things have already been moved in." Jem offered her his arm again, and she thanked him after glancing back at the hallway in front of Jessamine's door once more. Will was heading to his own room Anjel supposed, and the awkward man had disappeared sometime during the confusion.

Jem coughed lightly. "It is rather improper for a lady to be wandering about in only her nightclothes."

"21st century American, remember?" Anjel reminded him.

"The future seems...peculiar."

"I could say the same about this entire time period." Anjel gestured with a sweep of her hands.

Jem ducked out of the way as she almost hit him with her hands, and he waved off her apology with a chuckle. "Yes, I suppose you could." Jem stopped in front of a door and released Anjel's arm. "This is your room; I am right across the hall if you need anything. I imagine you'll have a lot of questions tomorrow, so do try to get your rest. Good night, Miss Valloise."

"Anjel." she corrected, "Call me Anjel."

"Good night then, Anjel." Jem smiled before going across the hall to his own room.

Anjel settled into her bed-the thought of sleeping in a bed from the 1800s excited her. Of course it wasn't nearly as comfortable as her own, but there was something..._cool_ about sleeping in a bed that was part of history itself.

Jem was right, she would have a lot of questions come tomorrow.

**Author's Note: This was a rather short chapter, but I didn't want to start on the next day lest it be a huge monster chapter. Anjel's got a horrible mouth, I know, but it does get fixed! …Eventually. Comment, offer ideas, review, you know the drill by now. Chapter updates will be a little bit slow (maybe a chapter or two a weekend) since it's research paper season at school, and I'll be rather busy. See you next chapter! **


	2. Diamonds and Daggers

**Author's Note: I know I said I'd probably only update on weekends, but what else is there to do when you've got a 4 day weekend and you're sick? Also, please excuse the typos I know there will be a lot because I write the chapters on my iPod then mail them to myself to upload on Microsoft Word, so there's a lot of room for glitches between sending. Point them out for me and I'll be glad to fix them. This chapter has a considerable deal more cursing than the previous, so sorry! Comment/review/read/enjoy! Disclaimer: Still don't own Infernal Devices. **

**Chapter 2: Diamonds and Dagers**

"Wake up, miss." Anjel heard a voice saying, and then heard shuffling noises. She groaned and reached over out of habit to turn off her alarm clock-then it hit her. Everything that had happened within the last-Anjel didn't even know how long it had been, or what day it was-day, she guessed, came crashing back to the front of her mind like being hit by a full force train.

Anjel shivered and drew her blankets around her. That was when she noticed there was another girl in the room, bustling about with a hand full of clothes. "Who are you?"

Anjel studied her face, immediately noticing the prominent scar dominating it. Anjel, personally, thought scars were cool; to her they were like their own little stories. Anjel wondered what kind of story this girl's would tell.

"Sophie, miss, I'm merely a maid." she curtsied, and Anjel found it odd at first, then remembered where she was.

"I'm Anjel." she smiled despite only wanting to return to sleep. "I'm from the 21st century, so I don't know how to curtsey, or do anything 'ladylike' actually."

"Let's get you dressed, then, everyone is already waiting at breakfast." Sophie laid out a selection of dresses and Anjel frowned. She hated dresses, especially the long frilly ones. "These are Jessamine's, you're closest to her size."

Oh there was no way in hell Anjel was wearing those now. "I've got my own clothes, thanks." Anjel muttered, mentally cursing the women's fashion of this age.

"Charlotte's requested that you not wear them, so as not to draw any unwanted attention to yourself." Sophie didn't seem like she would budge on the subject, and if this Charlotte woman was her boss, then Anjel didn't want to get Sophie in trouble.

"Are there any black ones, at least?" Anjel was willing to compromise; if the uncomfortable puffy dress was black then she wouldn't pitch too much of a fit.

"None. We tried to find ones she hasn't worn, and most of those are pink." Anjel wanted to punch someone, more specifically, Jessamine.

"There is no way in hell I'm wearing pink." Anjel crossed her arms stubbornly.

~.~.~

Anjel was angry-no, _furious._ She sat in front of the vanity table, watching Sophie brush her hair in the mirror even though she told her it wasn't necessary.

Anjel tugged at the frilly sleeves of the dress; they were too long, they covered her hands completely. The dress was loose in the chest area, but the giant fluffy bow tied just below her neck hid that. The dress literally covered her from head to toe; it went down to the floor and dragged when she walked.

"Just give me a few minutes to put on my make-up and I'll be ready." Anjel rummaged through her duffle bag for her cosmetic supplies. She'd had to argue with Sophie for a good five minutes to be able to wear make-up at all.

Sophie nodded and set the brush down. Anjel applied her full amount of daily make-up-blush, lipstick, everything-and smiled as part of her wall was put up again. Her green eyes looked a little less neon without her black clothes, her skin a little less pale. Her cheeks even had a healthy tinge of pink to them. She hated it.

Anjel stood from the vanity-and tripped over the dress. "Blast this thing!" Anjel grumbled as Sophie helped her up.

"You'll get used to it." Sophie said with a smile as she led Anjel down to breakfast, frequently helping her up after she tripped.

"Damn you people!" Anjel fumed as she entered the dinning room. The awkward man from last night was at the head of the table, the woman to his right, Jem to his left, and to the right of Jem was Jessamine. Will was opposite Jem, and Anjel took the seat next to him.

"Your language never takes an off day, does it?" Jem asked as she seated herself.

"Neither does my attitude." Anjel looked across the table at Jessamine. "Pretty fucking ugly dress."

"At least it's better looking than-"

The woman cleared her throat; there was an air of authority about her despite her height. "Let's try _not_ to have a repeat of last night, shall we?"

"I quite liked it." Will added.

The woman ignored Will's comment. "Anjel, I'm Charlotte Branwell, and this," she gestured to the man at the head of the table, "is my husband Henry." Henry nodded at her in greeting, distracted by some blueprints scattered in front of him at the table. "You've already..._met_ Jessamine, and you're acquainted with Will and Jem."

Anjel smiled and nodded at Charlotte. "Nice to meet you."

Sometime during the introductions, breakfast had been placed on the table. Anjel happily piled her plate with food, oblivious to the looks everyone except Henry were giving her. She hadn't eaten in—"Oh, what's the date?"

"November 1, 1877." Jem supplied.

"I imagine you have quite a lot of questions for us." Charlotte said as she ate, in a much more refined manner than Anjel.

"By the Angel, you've awful manners!" Will exclaimed as he watched her eat. She had given up on utensils long since, and was now shoving food into her mouth by the handfuls.

"Shut up!" she did, at least, finish chewing before she shot a retort back at Will. "And yes, I do have some questions."

"Please, go ahead and ask while you are...eating," Charlotte said the word as if the action Anjel was performing now could only be questionably, at best, called eating, "we will attempt to answer any questions you have."

"Why I am here? And a better question yet, how did I get here?" Everyone at the table looked surprised that Anjel actually had the decency to use a napkin.

"Honestly, we were hoping that you would be able to clear that up for us." Jem said across from her, smiling as she continuously had to stop and roll up her sleeves to prevent them from getting in her food.

"Do demons actually exist?" Anjel had expected that answer, and moved on, unbothered, to her next question.

"Yes. As do warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and many other creatures." Charlotte answered this time.

"What were you doing yesterday, Jessamine said something about a 'demon outbreak?'"

"As Shadowhunters, it is our duty to protect the human population from demons."

"You say 'humans' like you're not humans yourselves..."

"We're not." Jem and Will said together.

"Not completely, anyway. Our blood is mixed with the blood of an angel's, and it gives us...privileges." Charlotte explained, but Anjel was now more confused than before she had asked the question.

"Perhaps the Codex would do her more good than us trying to explain." Jem offered, to which Charlotte and Will nodded in response.

Anjel noticed Henry and Jessamine were silent for the better part of the conversation. Jessamine, surprisingly, spoke up. "She needs new clothes before anything else."

Anjel hated the thought of anyone deciding something for her. "_No_, I want to read this Codex or whatever, then I want to explore and learn about the 1800s, then I'd like to kick your ass again, and then go _home_. Nowhere in that schedule is there anything about clothes, so I'll thank you to keep your nose where it belongs-out of my business-before I _chop it off_." Jessamine visibly paled and Charlotte sighed.

"I'll offer you a compromise. You can read the Codex, explore all you wish, and then go home, _after_ we've figured out who or what you are, and how exactly you ended up here." Charlotte held out her hand. Anjel stared at it a moment before shaking to close the deal.

Charlotte addressed Jem and Will specifically. "If we're unable to find out anything about her in a reasonable amount of time, then I'll have to request the Silent Brothers."

Anjel tuned most of what they were saying out, seeing as none of it made sense to her anyway. She wandered over to Henry's place at the table, looking over his shoulders at the blueprints.

"That'll never work." she said after she studied what he was working on.

"Pardon?" he looked up at her, confused.

"The way you have it organized, it's unbalanced and the power'll be distributed unevenly, thus causing it to short out quickly."

Henry looked from her to the blueprint and back, then gasped. "Genius-you're a genius!" he grabbed his blueprints and hastily bolted from the dinning room, nearly knocking over his chair in the process.

"Um...what did I do?" Anjel asked, somewhat worried.

"Don't worry, he's just gone back to his lab to work on his gadgets again." Charlotte answered.

"How dandy, now we have two mad inventors under one roof." Will muttered to Jem, but Anjel overheard.

"I _am_ an inventor, but I'm not touched in the head." Anjel smirked at Will. "Where is this Codex thing, so I can start reading it?" Anjel asked to no one in particular.

"Oh, yes." Jem left the dinning hall for a moment, and then returned with a large thick book with which he sat on the table with a thump. "This is it." he coughed quietly as he wiped some of the dust and spider webs off of it.

"Are you all-" Will began, looking at Jem seriously. Anjel didn't know Will was even capable of being serious, all he had done since she met him was joke.

"It was just the dust."

Anjel eyed the book, surveying how long it would take her to read it. "If everyone leaves me alone, I can have it finished within the day." Anjel thought for a minute and then said, "Oh, and can I have some paper? Lots of paper and some pens maybe?"

Charlotte agreed. "I'll have some sent up to your room."

Anjel nodded her thanks and picked up the book with much effort and grunting (it weighed nearly as much as she did), then went upstairs to lock herself in her room for the day.

~.~.~

I was wrong, Anjel thought as Sophie was helping her dress the next morning, I do need new clothes. She was tired of wearing Jessamine's pink, overly large hand-me-downs.

"Morning." Anjel said as she sat down to breakfast.

"You're not as murderous this morning." Will commented.

"Oh I am. But I'll have my revenge before the sun sets." Anjel smiled sweetly at them all. Jem and Jessamine were the only ones who appeared frightened; Will looked amused at the threat.

"I need new, less _hideou_s clothes." she announced, making a point to look at Jessamine when she said hideous.

"Jessamine, will you take h-" Charlotte began, but was cut off by two simultaneous shouts of no from Jessamine and Anjel.

"You can't go shopping alone, and you don't even know your way around."

Anjel, who was expecting Charlotte to worry about her safety, said, "I'll take Will and Jem then."

"I'm busy; I have an appointment with Six Fingered Nigel." Will said lazily as he leaned back in his chair.

"Who's-" Anjel began, but Jem cut her off.

"Don't ask. Please."

"Jem, Will, you found her, so she's your responsibility." Charlotte said, sounding like the closest thing to a mother Anjel ever had.

"You make it sound like I'm a pet dog." Anjel didn't care who took her shopping (as long as it wasn't Jessamine), she just wanted to be rid of the horrid wardrobe she currently had.

"I prefer cats." Jem said, and Anjel made a sound like a hissing-dying would be a better word-cat, to which everyone at the table had to laugh.

"Come along then, Will, Anjel, I'll have Thomas bring the carriage." Jem stood from the table and pushed in his chair. Will and Anjel followed behind Jem, bickering until Jem became fed up with it and politely shushed them.

"Woah, cool!" Anjel said when she saw the carriage. Thomas was sitting in the driver's seat waiting on them.

"You have never seen a carriage?" Jem asked as he helped Anjel into the carriage and got inside after her, followed by Will.

"Well, only in pictures. We have cars." Anjel was studying the carriage like a toddler would a new toy.

"Cars?"

Anjel explained to them about cars; Jem listened attentively with animated interest, Will looked out of the window silently.

"How fascinating." Jem responded after she had finished her explanation.

Anjel didn't see how her time could be even remotely considered fascinating. She spent a good deal of her life wishing she could go back in time, and now that she finally had, the people found /her/ time interesting. "I'll teach you about my time if you'll tell me about yours."

"That is an excellent idea." Jem smiled at her. Anjel realized she loved his smile. It was so simple, but it held all of the kindness in the world. Anjel's walls slipped for a second, and in that moment, she smiled right back.

"Jem." Will spoke up for the first time since they had gotten in the carriage. His voice was somber.

Jem nodded, sharing some wordless communication with Will that Anjel did not understand. Will opened the door and hopped out of the moving carriage.

"We need to leave. Will you be all right?" Truthfully, Anjel would probably get lost, but she didn't want to hold them up.

"Go. I'm a big girl Jem, I can take care of myself." Jem slipped out of the carriage, a bit more gracefully than Will, and shut the door behind him.

~.~.~

_Well_, Anjel thought as she walked back to where she thought she remembered the carriage being, _I managed to find some tolerable dresses, but only a few pretty ones in black_. She would never admit that she actually liked some of the colored ones she picked out.

_Wait-didn't I already come this way?_ Anjel felt like she was walking in circles and started to get panicked. She followed another street, hoping to find Thomas and the carriage, but it turned out to be a dead end. As she was exiting the street, she bumped her face into someone's chest and recoiled quickly as it started to rumble with laughter.

"Excuse me." Anjel muttered as she tried to maneuver around the freakishly tall man.

He blocked her path, towering before her like Goliath. She looked up at the man so she could glare at him, and froze.

"You!" It was the man who had stopped her on the street before when she was running to Roe's house. His face was still completely hooded, but somehow she knew without a doubt that it was him. "Who are you? What did you do to me?"

The man reached a hand into his pocket. "That would be telling." His voice was low and breathy and it made Anjel shudder. Had anyone else possessed that voice, she would have said it was sexy.

Anjel backed away from him; she did not want to find out what he had in his pocket.

"Do you like puzzles?" the man followed her, every time she took a step back he would take a step forward.

Anjel felt her back hit the wall. Anjel was at a loss: her flight option was hindered and she obviously could not fight a nearly 7 foot tall man.

"I have a puzzle for you. If you can solve it, then you may return home." the man slowly drew his hand out of his pocket. Anjel saw something gleaming in his hand. "If not, then you will not have a world to return to."

A knife. It was a knife. He was going to stab her. "No!" she shouted and threw out her hands in an attempt to defend herself at the same time he lunged and drove the knife into her stomach.

Anjel slid to the ground and toppled over into the man's waiting arms. He ripped the knife out of her stomach and plunged it in again. Anjel screamed as blood pooled on her clothes and ran down to the ground.

The man retrieved a vial from his pocket and filled it with Anjel's blood. "If you do not solve the puzzle, you will be mine for the taking."

The man chuckled and pulled out the knife again. He filled another vial with blood. "You are intelligent," he drove the knife in again and it almost went cleanly through her, "Solve the puzzle."

The man filled a third vial before releasing her and allowing her to fall to the ground. "If you die now, you forfeit, and I will come to claim you in death."

Anjel watched the man's retreating form as she fought to stay conscious.

"Solve the puzzle." he disappeared completely in a flurry of diamonds.

And in his place, two boys came running down the alleyway. "Jem...Will..."

**Author's Note: This chapter was pretty fun to write actually. Tell me what you thought about it! I'm currently having a bit of writer's block for the ending of Chapter 3, but I'll try my best to get it up before Tuesday. See you next chapter! 3**


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